General elections are being held on 24 seats in 10 districts in Gilgit-Baltistan today. The number of candidates is 396, including eight women candidates.
Security arrangements have been made to make the elections peaceful.
Gilgit-Baltistan Police Chief IG Akbar Nasir Khan says that 17,000 police and law enforcement personnel will be deployed to maintain law and order in the elections, including Punjab and Sindh police, Rangers and FC personnel.
Senior leaders of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and its ally Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have campaigned for their respective candidates here. Nawaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also addressed election rallies.
While the major opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was not allowed to participate in these elections as a party.
The PTI says that several senior leaders, including its chairman Salman Akram Raja, were not even allowed to enter Gilgit-Baltistan to campaign for the candidates, and those who managed to reach there were later expelled from the area.
On the other hand, a complete crackdown is underway against nationalist leaders. Several leaders have been arrested and many are in hiding.
Political and public circles say that like the 2024 general elections in Pakistan, the elections to be held in Gilgit-Baltistan today are also facing alleged systematic rigging by military institutions, and that these elections are not fair and transparent, but rather the military authorities are trying to bring forward their favorite candidates.
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